Israel evicts Palestinian family from house in Jerusalem al-Quds

Israeli forces detain a member of the Abu Assab family as he protests their eviction from the house where they lived for many years, in the Old City of Jerusalem al-Quds, on February 17, 2019. (Photo by AFP)

Israeli forces have forcibly evicted a Palestinian family from their home in the Old City of the Israeli-occupied Jerusalem al-Quds, where they had lived for several generations.

Citing sources, the Palestinian Ma’an news agency reported that the Israeli forces raided Hatem Abu Assab’s family house in the Aqabat al-Khalidiya quarter of the Old City near the al-Aqsa Mosque on Sunday.

Witnesses said that the troops also physically assaulted the family’s members after they encircled and broke into the building.

Hatem’s wife, Rania, said that the Israeli forces took away his husband and son to an undisclosed location and the house was given to Israeli settlers.

​Israeli settlers seen on the roof of the Abu Assab family house, after the Palestinian family was evicted from the house, in the Old City of Jerusalem al-Quds, on February 17, 2019. (Photo by AFP)

“Israeli forces raided my home with no prior notice. We thought they came to deliver a new notice regarding our home; however, to our surprise we were given little time to abandon our home,” she added.

The family, which currently comprises nine people, has been living in this house for more than 56 years and made several appeals to the Palestinian residents of Jerusalem al-Quds and different institutions to help it stand against the Israeli decision to expel it from the house.

Israeli forces stand outside the house of Palestinian family Abu Assab, in the Old City of Jerusalem al-Quds, on February 17, 2019. (Photo by AFP)

The Abu Assab’s family came to the Old City after it was forcibly displaced from al-Baqa’a neighborhood in western Jerusalem al-Quds in 1948 following the Deir Yassin massacre.

The development come as Tel Aviv continues with its land expropriation policies in the occupied territories in blatant defiance of international law.